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Fall Classic is a whole new level

Burke: A whole new level

Astros rookie Chris Burke is providing daily commentary to MLB.com throughout his team's postseason run. Burke looks ahead to Saturday night's World Series opener in Chicago.

Wednesday night was a lot of fun -- just the celebration and the realization that we've come back from the heartbreaker in Game 5 and accomplished our goal. Now we're moving on one level higher.

It's great that Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell are able to finally play in a World Series. It just brings some closure and finality to the end of their great careers. Obviously they still have some baseball left in them, but they can at least say they played in the World Series.

But we're here to win the thing. We feel like we're playing our best ball right now. The way our guys are pitching, we feel like we've got a chance to win it. It's obviously a big event and there's kind of a circus going on right now, but I'm looking foward to everything narrowing down and getting more focused on baseball.

The night we clinched the NLCS, everyone had their families in the clubhouse after the game. Having my parents and brother there was awesome. They just don't get to see the behind-the-scenes stuff. There's so much that you want to share with them, but you just can't tell them how it all works.

For me, my family has been a huge influence on my career. Without them, I wouldn't be where I am. The fact that they were able to share in that moment and hopefully be here for these playoff games, I'm looking forward to sharing it with them.

The rally on Friday at the ballpark when we left for Chicago was great. Texas Avenue, right in front of the stadium, was lined with people. The fans have absolutely gone crazy for our team. We couldn't be more excited about getting back and playing games there. The major devastation for me was not that we lost that Game 5, it was that we didn't get to clinch it at home.

We've got a lot of baseball in front of us. Regardless of what happens in the Series, just the opportunity to bring the World Series home to the people of Houston, almost as a thank you for their support, is something I'm really excited about.

The number of reporters here is unbelievable. Cecil Cooper, our bench coach, did prepare me for this. He told me it would be 10 times worse than the NLCS. He was obviously right.

At the same time, it just shows how big this event is. But we have to play some baseball games. I guess we'll get down to that eventually.

Chris Burke's diary appears as told to Alyson Footer, a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.